A group of motherboard enthusiasts working for GIGABYTE, sharing their insider knowledge and general ramblings of the motherboard business, the tech industry, latest technologies and trends, and other random odds and ends.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Yesterday our resident overclocking guru HiCookie took his Intel Core i7 3930X CPU, a X79-UD3 armed with our new F7 BIOS release, copious amounts of LN2 and set down to some serious overclocking action. The resulting world records were soon posted on HWBot. Another day, another line drawn in the sands of high-performance computing. Pushing a CPU core frequency of 5643.3 MHz, related records for SuperPi and PiFast were unceremoniously smashed.

Power user sin0822 is back on the overclocking guide trail again and this time he’s talking Sandy Bridge-E. So if you’ve invested in a brand spanking new GIGABYTE X79 series motherboard to go with your new Intel i7 processor, or maybe you’ve been a good boy or girl and Santa dropped one off last weekend - either way make sure you take a look at this guide. It gives you a step by step help with overclocking on both air and liquid cooling, plus a whole lot more including in-depth advice on everything from component choices to voltage reading.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Seeing that GIGABYTE has announced a new BIOS for X79 series users I thought it might be useful to just revisit the job of actually updating your motherboard’s BIOS. While for more experienced users, power users and overclockers, this will be a simple and familiar task, this is a simple guide that less experienced users can refer to when updating their BIOS that is based on the user-friendly GIGABYTE Q Flash utility.

While there are several ways to update your motherboard’s BIOS, many advanced users prefer to use GIGABYTE Q Flash, a utility embedded within your board’s CMOS BIOS ROM. Q Flash updating is preferred simply because it doesn’t rely on a stable OS environment to ensure safe BIOS updating, i.e. it removes your OS as a possible failure point.

The first thing you should do is visit the GIGABYTE website to find the latest BIOS version for your motherboard. Each BIOS version is preceded with the letter F followed by a number. So for example, in the case of our new X79 series BIOS updates, the latest version for these boards is currently version F7. The file that you download from us is a self-executable 7-Zip file (basically a compressed folder containing several files). To open the file simple double-click on it, inside you’ll find three files (GIGABYTE also bundles some small, useful files to help you update your BIOS in a DOS environment, but we’ll leave that for another day). The one file we need is named the same as your motherboard, followed by a dot and the BIOS version. So in the case of the X79-UD3 board, the file we’re looking is simply named X79UD3.F7

Next we have to copy this BIOS file to a USB thumb drive. In the old days, we would use a floppy drive, but today, you can use any type of USB thumb drive of any capacity or brand. The only stipulation is that it must be formatted in FAT32 – but don’t worry, FAT32 is by far the most common formatting type for USB thumb drives, so it shouldn’t be an issue.

Now, with our USB thumb drive connected, we can reboot the PC. As the PC restarts and enters POST, press the ‘End’ key on you keyboard. This will automatically take you to the GIGABYTE Q Flash utility. Note: you can also also access Q Flash from inside BIOS by pressing the ‘F8’ key. Once inside the Q Flash utility, you find a simple GUI with two choices. Firstly ‘Save BIOS from Drive’ (this can be used to make a copy of your BIOS), or ‘Update BIOS from Drive’ which is the one we want to select.

Once we select ‘Update BIOS from Drive’ we will then see a list of connected FAT32 drives, so unless you have several USB thumb drives connected, (or you’re one or more of your hard drives are formatted in the now outdates FAT32 format system), the drive that appears here will be the USB thumb drive with your new BIOS on it. Select that drive.

You’ll then see all a list of applicable BIOS files on the drive. Note: if you have several BIOS versions on the drive, these will all be shown, so select the new BIOS file, which in the example above would be X79UD3.F7. Once you have selected the new BIOS file, press Enter.

Q Flash will then verify that the selected file is compatible, and then write the new BIOS file to the CMOS chip on your board. After verifying the BIOS once more, you’ll see the ‘Copy BIOS completed – Pass!’ message which means you’re good to go.

Once you reboot, you’ll find your PC has returned to ‘Optimized Default’ BIOS settings, so by all means, setup your BIOS as you prefer in terms of Boot Order, Overclocking and device configurations.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

If you are using a GIGABYTE X79 series motherboard for overclocking, we suggest that you to upgrade to the new F7 BIOS. If you’re not overclocking then there is no need to upgrade the BIOS, but it won’t hurt to do so either.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Computerworld.com is reporting that for the first time since the disastrous flooding hit Thailand back in October, hard drive prices have showed signs of dropping. Even though average prices will still remain at relatively high prices compared to earlier this year, it does indicate that inventories in the PC retail channel have started to stabilize, meaning that the worst is behind us.

Image source: Dynamite Data.

While there was plenty of mass speculation and backed by conflicting reports in the last few weeks regarding this issue, it’s clear that the sudden price hike did nothing to help ship PCs globally, and certainly will have impacted the DIY market to some extent. However, it would seem that certain doomsday predictions were wide of the mark. And after all, from a purely DIY perspective, there’re plenty of reasons to upgrade to a new X79, Z68 or 900FX platform, regardless of how much a new hard drive costs. Indeed many DIY builders will simply migrate their existing data storage anyway, or will be more focused on adding a high-performance SSD to their existing array.

Monday, December 19, 2011

A friend pointed the Orange OPC out to me as a neat little system that uses a GIGABYTE motherboard. It’s an awesome looking portable amplifier PC designed by musicians for musicians with features like a 24 bit guitar/instrument interface, JBL speakers, post-processing EQ, 7.1 surround sound outputs and quick USB charging for an iPad (if you use Apple Garage Band for example).

It also comes with a whole raft of full version software including Amplitube3, PreSonus Studio One, Acoustica Mixcraft 5 and EZdrummer Lite.

They don’t mention what GIGABYTE motherboard they are using, but judging from the features, size of the case and the Intel Core i3 CPU, it looks to be an H67N-USB3-B3 (I may be wrong though).

Check out the Orange OPC website for product introduction and demo videos, as well as info on how to buy it.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Anandtech has just published their buyer’s guide for the forthcoming holiday season. Zach Throckmorton sketches out a bunch of systems tailored for a mainstream high-end user. We are of course deeply flattered to see that Zach has opted for GIGABYTE motherboards for both the ‘Gamer’s Delight’ and the ‘Productivity Powerhouse’ builds.

“Gigabyte's GA-Z68XP-UD3 is an ATX form factor motherboard with all of the bells and whistles. It is a very capable overclocker and in my experience very reliable as well. While it's definitely not in the highest echelon of LGA 1155 motherboards, it is a solid higher-end mainstream motherboard. Perhaps of most interest to gamers, it supports both SLI and CrossFire….”

“Gigabyte's GA-X79-UD3 is an ATX form factor motherboard that represents a good value amongst X79 chipset boards. If your applications benefit from GPU acceleration, it has two PCIe x16 and two PCIe x8 lanes....”

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

I just came across a really cool account of our X79 plugfest even in Kula Lumpur last month published by bartman1973. In good old fashioned blogger style, bartman treats us to a detailed blow-by-blow account of his trip from Singapore to KL, including tons of photos of the event, the city, the food, the people and more. A real taste of what went down in KL that weekend….Awesome.

I love the way the photos take you on a journey, giving you a taste of what kind of fun overclockers get up to on a Saturday night in the Malaysian capital. Cheers bartman1973. Great coverage. Check out bartaman’s full blog entry on his blog here.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

As you m ay already know, three of our new X79 series motherboard models are currently sold with a bundled Wi-Fi / Bluetooth PCIe card (model No: GC-WIFI), something that more and more DIY builders are keen to see, especially on our high-end models. However, one thing that you may not be aware of, is that this exclusive GIGABYTE PCIe card offers support for the latest Bluetooth 4.0 standard which is a new low power, high-speed standard that is supported by devices such as the new iPhone 4S.

Backwards compatible with previous Bluetooth revisions, Bluetooth 4.0 brings some clear advantages to the table. These include fast device pairing, low latency communication and low power consumption. This means that your iPhone 4S, or Bluetooth 4.0 device can more easily connect to your PC via the motherboard’s PCIe adapter and take advantage of the low latency connection to move data from the iOS device and the PC much faster than previously possible.

I’m sure many of you have tried using your smart phone as a remote control for PC. Well, imagine taking that one step further. One such scenario with Bluetooth 4.0 is that you could not only use you iOS device as a remote control for your PC, but that the Bluetooth 4.0 connection would be resilient and fast enough to even let you use the device as a game controller, just like a wireless PS3 controller. This is possible because the lower latencies provided by the Bluetooth 4.0 specification, mean that the response time between the PC and the device would be virtually instant, with almost no delay. Fast enough to play video games.

According to reports in the media, Apple is also talking about offering AirPlay support to Bluetooth 4.0 devices too. This exciting technology would allow you to play any audio from your iPhone 4S through the speakers of your PC. If you had more than one Bluetooth 4.0 capable PC in your home, you’d even be able to select which machine or machines to pump the audio through. Pretty cool stuff.

Also, as I mentioned, Bluetooth 4.0 also has lower power demands than previous revisions which means that if you are connected to your PC using the Bluetooth 4.0 connection, it shouldn’t drain your device’s battery. This should make a big difference compared to say, a regular Wi-Fi controller, which typically require substantial power.

While Bluetooth 4.0 is still very much a new technology, we certainly expect to see more compatible devices emerge early next year. But if you’re thinking of the best way to connect to your PC, Bluetooth 4.0 clearly offers some real advantages, making it easier than ever to connect to and share data between your mobile device and your PC.

HardwareZone just did a review of the GIGABYTE X79-UD7. They pitted it against the MSI X79A-GD65 (8D) and used an Asus Rampage 3 Extreme as a comparison only to find the UD7 steam roll its competition in spectacular fashion.

Performance Unleashed

The series of tests that we employed on the Gigabyte X79-UD7 was the same as the one that we had used on the MSI X79A-GD65 (8D). Below is a rundown of the components and benchmarks that we had. We also compared the X79-UD7's scores to those of the ASUS Rampage III Black Edition to see the former's advantage over an X58-based platform like the latter.

By and large, we can see that the X79-UD7 fared better than the X79A-GD65 (8D),and, logically, much more than the X58-based Rampage II Black Edition motherboard. On Futuremark's PCMark Vantage, it is obvious that the X79-UD7, coupled with a powerful graphics card like the Gainward GTX 580 Phantom 3 1536MB, got a very high score on the Gaming category of the benchmark. Such an impressive gaming performance remained consistent with the scores that the X79-UD7 garnered on the game benchmarks of Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War II – Retribution and Metro 2033, wherein the Gigabyte overshadowed the MSI and the ASUS boards.

Monday, December 12, 2011

You know, I just cannot resist a good unboxing video…all that plastic wrapping and crisp packaging…you can almost smell the fresh PCB scent. So you can imagine how I felt when I saw that Paul from Newegg TV had just uploaded a new video showcasing our top-of-the-line G1-Killer board, the X79-based G1.Assassin 2. Take a look.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Andy Ruffell, writing for UK techies eTeknix, yesterday published his in-depth review of our Z68AP-D3 board, a motherboard that’s aimed squarely at those of us who want to taste the pleasures of Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge CPUs coupled with the latest Z68 chipset, without causing injury to our bank balance. At a smidgen over 80 British Pounds, Andy saw plenty of evidence to warrant a ‘Bang for Buck’ award, however he was actually impressed enough with the board’s overall performance to wheel out the more prestigious ‘Editor’s Choice’ award:

“Having a quick talk about the rating, which we don’t normally delve into, I wanted to clarify why this board earns our prestigious Editor’s Choice Award. It was destined to gain the Bang For Buck Award but the performance results showed us that it can rival some of the bigger, more expensive boards on the market, and the icing on the cake was how well it overclocked. The board really did meet, exceed and literally fly past our expectations, and we have to congratulation Gigabyte on making such a fantastic board.”

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Hilbert Hagedoorn just gave our X79-UD7 motherboard stamp of approval in his latest review for Guru3D.com. Designed to offer overclockers all the tools and features needed to break serous records on Intel’s new Sandy Bridge-E processors, the GIGABYTE X79-UD7 wears our OC badge with pride. After having put the board through its paces, here’s a sample of what Hilbert had to say:

“The X79 UF7 is an impressive motherboard. It's feature rich, a great overclocker and has downright gorgeous looks. If you are a novice overclocker and go for easy, flick the OC button at the rear IO backplate and it will get you an instant performance boost. Overclocking itself with the new 3D BIOS is fun as well, it really is an easy to work in environment. Gigabyte implemented two uEFI BIOSes by the way, you can can switch in-between them (say a normal and high performance profile), good stuff.

For overclocking itself we reached 4800 MHz in a matter if minutes and 5 GHz after a while. That last step did need some fine-tuning though. Mind you though that we work with vanilla picked engineering sample CPUs, we can never guarantee you'll achieve the same results at home. It works vice versa as well, we've seen end-users with much higher overclocks then we have ever achieved, good on ya ;)”

The UD7’s dashing orange paint job gleaned some additional love, which is not so surprising - coming from the heart of a Dutchman.

“Now I live in the Netherlands, we dig Orange as its our national color, as such I adore the looks of the motherboard, but that won't be the same for everybody though. The color is very out there. If you like it, then you're in luck as it's one of the best X79 motherboards out there on the market that matches your style, looks, features and options.”

Friday, December 2, 2011

Gabriel Torres writing for Hardware Secrets has just published an in-depth first look at our entry-level X79 offering, the GIGABYTE X79-UD3. Obviously the X79-UD3 model is aimed more cost conscious X79 platform builders, but as well as offering great value, we’ve also tried hard to offer a board with a complete range of features. Here’s a sample of what Gabriel had to say:

“Today there are only three socket 2011 motherboards cheaper than the Gigabyte X79-UD3, the ASRock X79 Extreme-4M (USD 220), the MSI X79MA-GD45 (USD 230), and the ASRock Extreme4 (USD 235), and all of them have fewer features and don’t come with four PCI Express x16 slots. True competitors from MSI and ASUS cost more, making the Gigabyte X79-UD3 your best option if you want to save money while building a PC based on a Core i7 “Sandy Bridge-E” processor with four video cards and yet have a high-quality motherboard with lots of extra options.”

Thursday, December 1, 2011

For the sake of a simple comment, you can be the proud owner of a GIGABYTE X79-UD5 motherboard. Yep…you heard me correctly. Just head over to AnandTech.com, make a suitable comment below and your name will be put in the hat for the prize draw. The competition runs until 11AM EST on December 2nd, which is TOMORROW!

Russian overclockers have been called to arms by OC Club in Russia who have just announced their ‘Overclocking, Tweaking and Performing’ OC Challenge. Sponsored by GIGABYTE and GeIL, the competition runs from December 9th to 29th, and will comprise of three stages centered around extreme memory overclocking performance.

Prizes include GIGABYTE X79-UD7 and X58A-OC motherboards, as well as a range of high-end GeIL DDR3 memory kits.